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Thursday December 9, 2010 2:51 pm

Infinity Blade review

Infinity Blade was released yesterday, the first true game to run on the new Unreal Engine for iPhone. As such, it's been previewed and hyped a lot in the past months. At a $5.99 price point for the universal app that works on both the iPhone and iPad, was it worth the wait?

First, just like the Unreal demo Epic Citadel was, this game right from the start impresses with it's graphics and sceneries. As you start, the initial cinematic shows you a little bit of back story as to what you'll be fighting for, and the 3D environment seen on the screen is quite impressive. On both the iPhone 4 and iPad, the graphics use the latest tricks, usually reserved to console gaming, to provide a stunning experience. Adding to that is an impressive musical score, playing throughout the game and providing a great gaming experience.

Past the graphics, one thing that has notoriously been difficult to achieve on the iPhone is a good control system. There are no virtual joystick or a bunch of buttons filling the screen here. Instead, you attack by swiping on the screen, with the HUD, the user interface, being minimal. The game is very responsive and you can make long combos of attacks which will be executed by your on-screen character. The combat is also more than just slashing at your enemies endlessly. To survive, you need to block, parry and dodge incoming attacks, making timing important. While at the start you may get away with simply blocking each time an attack comes, eventually you'll be forced to vary your tactics in order to defeat the opponents. This makes some fights quite challenging until you get the hang of it.

As far as how the story goes, this is primarily a combat game. You move through the environment from one boss to the next, and fight each of them in order to reach the final boss, the one who you see kill your father at the beginning of the game. There are RPG elements, such as leveling up and gathering loot, but they are fairly light. You can upgrade your armor and helm, rings, your shield, and gather money and potions. But this is not an RPG game, and the action itself is centered around the endless battles between the various opponents the game offers.

Overall this will certainly end up being one of the top mobile games of 2010. Even at it's $5.99 price, it's worth checking out, if only to see the amazing surroundings and impressive fights. The bar has been raised once again for iPhone gaming with Infinity Blade.